Drupal 7

Drupal 7 came out of Beta in 2011, and I'm using it on all my new sites now. While there's been a learning curve for me, adjusting to new methods of working with Drupal, renamed administrative tools, and different approaches to building and theming sites, my clients haven't missed a beat. I'd even say their user experience is better than before. After all, improving user experience was a big part of the new version of Drupal.

New and Improved

A new toolbar and page overlay change the way my clients work with and edit their sites. Shortcuts and links to important administrative tools are handily located in the toolbar when logged in. To edit much of the site content, site editors simply browse to the content they wish to edit, and then click an Edit Link. An editing window overlays the current page, and all site editing takes place right in the browser window. 

There certainly have been some struggles along the way with this transition from Drupal 6 to 7. Most sites depend on many different modules to run, and though most of the key ones have been ported to Drupal 7, bugs do happen, and many patches and updates have been neeeded. But overall it's been a very positive experience, and I woudn't want to go back to 6. 

Some recent Drupal 7 sites I've worked on include: 

• Edina Hornets, High School Athletics
• CVT, Center for Victims of Torture
• Musicians Unlimited, an agency for hiring entertainers
• QBS, an IT staffing and consulting firm

Plus many more Drupal 7 sites in the works. Are you using Drupal 7? What do you think? 

• Web Tech